As a Fuji user after many years of Canon shooting, the topic of rendering X-Trans Raw files is an interesting topic. Generally Lightroom (and ACR) is weaker in rendering .RAF files than some rival programmes. The general criticisms are that fine details can get lost, certain colours get halos and foliage can be rendered in a watercolour style.

Pete Bridgwood in a blog post explained that using placing Sharpening > Detail slider in LR/ACR to +100 can improve rendering, and that has been my default method for a while.

There have been some improvements in Lightroom 6.1 and more are promised. The guys at FujivsFuji have taken a look at some tricks to process files, comparing Lightroom 5.7, 6.1, Irident Developer and Capture One.

The tl;dr is that there are improvements in 6.1, Irident probably produces the best files and Capture One isn’t bad either, but have a look at the article!

By now you will have seen that Lightroom has been updated to 6.1 and CC 2015.1. In essence the two versions are the same but because of the bizarre Sarbanes-Oxley act, LR 6.1 doesn’t get the new features available to the CC version.

This means a perpetual user won’t get to use the new Dehaze, nor the Blacks and Whites Local Adjustment features. (Note: the latter is the Blacks and Whites from the Basic panel and not Black and White. The possibilities for confusion are mighty!)

Longtime Lightroom user Stu Maschwitz is offering a set of Presets to mimic the Dehaze functionality in the CC version for 6.1 users. They are available for no charge, which only seems right! Kudos to him.

So far I have found the Dehaze effect to ramp a bit quickly. I don’t know if that is a byproduct of Fuji RAF files, but it means that after about +25 it gets too harsh.

Speaking of Fuji RAF files, after a hiatus there has been some additional work done by the Camera Raw team to improve some of the blur colour artifacts in the rendering of Raw files. This can be seen in this forum post.

Even better news is that Adobe is ‘collaborating with Fujifilm to investigate methods to improve fine detail rendering and overall edge definition.’

Camera Support

Fujifilm X-T10

Nikon 1 J5

Nikon D810A

Panasonic DMC-G7

Pentax K-S2

Pentax K3 II (preliminary)

Lens Profiles

Mount

Name

Canon

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Canon

Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM

Canon

Tokina AT-X 11-20mm f/2.8 PRO DX

DJI

PHANTOM 3 FC300S (RAW + JPEG)

DJI

PHANTOM 3 FC300X (RAW + JPEG)

Leica

Voigtlander VM 15mm f4.5 Super Wide Heliar III Aspherical

Nikon

Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 10-100mm f/4-5.6

Nikon

Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR PD-Zoom 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6

Nikon

Nikon AF NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4D IF

Nikon

Tokina AT-X 11-20mm f/2.8 PRO DX

Pentax

HD PENTAX-DA 18-50mm f/4-5.6 DC WR RE

Pentax

HD PENTAX-DA L 18-50mm f/4-5.6 DC WR RE

Pentax

HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6ED DC AW

Sony Alpha

Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II

Sony Alpha

Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II

Sony Alpha

Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II

The updates are available through the Creative Cloud app or a standard Adobe updater.

By now you may think that Lightroom 6 has already been released considering the number of leaks about release dates, teases from the Lightroom community and full-on announcements from rumour sites.

Well it wasn’t but now it is!

So what do you get in the new version?

HDR Merge and Panorama Merge

Probably the highlight features of the new release. It is a major change from the current method of creating HDR and Panoramas by kicking the various files into an external editor such as Photoshop.

Now you can create HDRs and Panoramas, in Lightroom and it creates it as a DNG file. This is such a powerful feature as you can now do post-production using metadata edits on your merged file.

Speed

Something that has been a bugbear for a while with Lightroom has been speed. This has been partially addressed with a new feature in 6 which allows you to use the GPU to accelerate overall speed. The biggest benefits are in the Develop module, but you should notice a speed boost in many places. Naturally your GPU must be compatible.

Face Recognition

This has been a highly requested feature and generally works pretty well. It might not have all the bells and whistles or other programs but it is pretty solid. One notable thing is that it can take a long time. If you have a large number of images (especially with a large number of portraits) then I recommend you leave it running overnight for the initial pass. Then you have to go through and check off who is who.

Advanced Video Slideshows

The first update to the Slideshow module for a while, you can now combine stills, video and music with pan and zoom effects.

Filter Brush

Now you can precisely control which parts of your image are affected by the Graduated or Radial filters. This will be great for those Graduated Filters where the horizon line is disrupted.

HTML5 Web Galleries

The Flash galleries have been updated to be HTML5 web galleries.

Lightroom CC

This release is focusing on the Creative Cloud release of Lightroom. There is a standalone version still of Lightroom 6, and the Photography Bundle still exists. Coupled with the release of Lightroom Desktop, Lightroom on Mobile has been updated to include the following: Android Tablet Support, Native DNG Support on Android, Android SD card support, TIFF support and a better crop experience on iOS.

Lightroom also integrates better with apps like Adobe Voice and Slate.

New Camera Support

As ever, each new release brings a crop of new camera and lens support

I have a feeling that I will drop GDrive when my renewal occurs later this month, and I will review AWS. It is highly useful and has saved my bacon on a couple of occasions, but the disadvantage is that it is that bit harder to access (and costs money to restore). I use Arq from Haystack Software, which I highly recommend, to manage the process.

NOTE:

One thing to be clear on as pointed out by Peter Deegan @dhcphotouk is that OneDrive as only allows a string of 256 ch including file paths.

When it was announced that Apple would no longer be developing Aperture their Raw workflow software, there was consternation in the Aperture community.

Apple stated that they intend to bring out Photos for Mac, which will be a combined iPhoto/Aperture replacement, but as yet apart from a short demo in June at WWDC there has been little information about what that entails.

Shortly afterwards Adobe announced that they were working on an Aperture Importer for Lightroom (it also imports iPhoto libraries too), and that has now been released.

The process is fairly straightforward and is detailed on the Lightroom Journal blog post.

One thing to note is that you need Lightroom 5.6 and above. You can check your Lightroom version by going to Help->System Info inside Lightroom.

When Tom Hogarty demoed Lightroom mobile in September, lots of users were really excitied about the possibilities and now 8 months later here is the birth of Lightroom mobile.

Lightroom mobile allows you to use your iPad to do a small set of tasks and then have the changes sync back to your main Lightroom catalog. You can:

access images in your Lightroom catalog

make selects, reject unworthy photos

apply a preset

refine your adjustments using all your favorites from the Basic panel, including Highlights, Shadows, and Clarity

import new photos directly from the iPad’s Camera Roll

For this to work your Catalog needs to contain Smart Previews (which were introduced in Lightroom 5).

To use Lightroom mobile, you firstly need Lightroom 5.4. You will need to sign in on both the iPad and Lightroom 5.4. You need some form of the Creative Cloud – this can be the Photoshop Photography Plan, full Creative Cloud, CC Student and Teacher Edition, and CC for Teams. A free 30 day trial is available for regular paid Lightroom users.

The way to get images onto Lightroom mobile is to create a Collection for synching (right-click on a Collection and select “Sync with Lightroom mobile”.

Lightroom Desktop Collection

This syncs the images with Creative Cloud, and then after a short period they appear on your iPad.

Lightroom mobile

Double tap and you can see Metadata

Metadata

Tap and image and you have options for Develop adjustments, presets and cropping.

So if you download it, have a play and feedback to the usual Lightroom places, forums and social media then chances are an update with even more features will be forthcoming!